Chapter 17 .｡.:✧ First Friend (3) ✧:.｡.

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

After finishing our meal, we immediately went to the Adventurer’s Guild reception desk to check for quests.

“May a radiant light shine upon you! What can I do for you?”

Unfortunately, the reception desk at the Lucadia Academy, unlike the game, had a different person instead of the ubiquitous Deishee.

“What kind of monster subjugation quests are there that we can hunt in this area?”

Since this was our first time here, I showed them my adventurer’s badge from my inventory.

Following my lead, Pamela also hurriedly took out her badge and showed it to the receptionist, who smiled brightly.

“Please wait a moment.”

[Slime Subjugation]

[Goblin Subjugation]

[Half-Moon Bear Subjugation]

[Wild Wolf Subjugation]

What the receptionist took out were subjugation quests for monsters that could be hunted near the Lucadia Academy map even in the game.

However, one of the monsters I knew was missing.

A monster that wasn’t a story boss but was stronger than other monsters and dropped materials for leveling up skills or weapons.

A field boss monster.

If it was near the Lucadia Academy, then…

“Are there no ogres?”

“Ah… do you mean ogre subjugation? Are you two perhaps current academy students?”

“No, we are prospective students. We passed the exam yesterday.”

“I see. Ogre subjugation is, of course, available. But… I cannot recommend it. Ogres are strong monsters. I recommend you challenge them after gaining more experience at the academy.”

So there were ogres after all.

But in the receptionist’s eyes, he was probably giving advice out of fear that these fledglings who were about to enter the academy would lose their lives by taking on a high-difficulty quest.

I also didn’t know if my current skills would be effective against a field boss, so I had no intention of taking it on right away.

I shook my head and said something to reassure the receptionist.

“No, I just asked because I heard there were ogres near the Lucadia Academy.”

“I see.”

“Pamela.”

“Y-yes?”

“Which quest would you like to take?”

“A-a quest I’d like to take? Uh, um. I-I’m fine with whatever quest you take, Mr. Shih-han. I-I think it would be better for you to choose than for someone like me to choose.”

“I see. Then… let’s go with this one.”

I chose the Half-Moon Bear subjugation.

In Lu-Fan, it was a stronger individual than the slimes and goblins you hunted around level 12.

And it was a monster on the same level as the Stone Orc I had hunted alone.

This would be a good way to see Pamela’s skills.

“Understood. Could you please tell me your names?”

“Ishihan.”

“P-Pamela.”

“Yes, Mr. Ishihan, Ms. Pamela, I will process your acceptance of the Half-Moon Bear subjugation quest. Do you know the location of the Half-Moon Bear?”

“No.”

I knew from the game that it was somewhere to the east, but it would be better to ask.

“Then I will explain.”

The receptionist’s explanation was the same as the direction I knew. However, he kindly told me which gate to go out of and which carriage to take.

This process was similar to what I had heard from Deishee when I went to hunt the Stone Orc.

After the explanation, when I said I had no more questions, the receptionist maintained his bright receptionist smile and said.

“Then I wish you success in your quest. May a radiant light shine upon you!”

Following the receptionist’s directions, we went to the east gate stop and took a carriage.

While riding in the carriage, Pamela, who was sitting across from me, glancing at me and fiddling with her fingers, asked me.

“U-um, u-um, u-um, u-um! M-Mr. Shih-han!”

“What is it?”

“D-d-do you, d-do you have any h-h-hobbies?”

“A hobby?”

“Yes. Th-that… I-I heard that f-friends also sh-share their hobbies… Ah! If you don’t want to talk about it, y-you don’t have to! In fact, you were probably uncomfortable with someone like me asking what your hobby is, right? You were annoyed, right? I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

I cheerfully ignored the latter part and answered Pamela’s question.

“Eating.”

“E-eating?”

“Yes. My hobby is eating. I also like things like snacks.”

In the first place, the only fundamental enjoyment in this world was eating.

Just as there were scenes in the game events where the protagonist would eat various foods and nod in satisfaction, the food in this world was not bad.

Other than that, there was also appreciating the gacha characters I had seen in Lu-Fan, but I couldn’t say something like that out loud.

“What’s your hobby?”

I already knew from her character settings, but I asked anyway.

“I-I, um… r-reading books. There were a lot of books in my master’s house, so I liked to read them. And, um… c-collecting medicinal herbs and insects that can be used for good medicine… Hmph! N-no! N-not that! It’s reading and collecting medicinal herbs!”

Pamela hastily corrected herself from saying insect collecting.

It was probably because of the trauma from when she was a child and the neighborhood kids were disgusted when she talked about insect collecting.

“Reading and collecting medicinal herbs… a good hobby.”

“A g-good hobby?”

“Yes, reading to gain knowledge and collecting medicinal herbs that are useful in life is a good hobby. If you don’t mind, could you tell me about medicinal herbs? It would be helpful for future quests.”

In reality, I probably wouldn’t be able to recover my health by putting food in my inventory and eating it right away like in the game.

In the end, what was important was to either be healed by a healer or to carry medicinal herbs and treat yourself.

Considering that, gaining knowledge about medicinal herbs would surely be helpful.

“Y-yes! I’ll tell you! He, hehehehehe….”

Pamela grinned happily at having her hobby praised.

“Th-then I’ll t-tell you about some simple medicinal herbs first!”

Pamela became very excited as she was about to talk about medicinal herbs, a topic she was confident in.

Until we reached our destination, I learned about medicinal herbs from Pamela.

Even though she stuttered, when she talked about something she knew, Pamela spoke very quickly.

When it was too fast to understand, I didn’t ask her to speak slowly, but if I asked her to explain it again, Pamela would repeat it a little slower this time without any sign of displeasure.

By giving her a chance to repeat herself instead of pointing out her mistake, I could avoid hearing Pamela’s low self-esteem remarks and apologies.

Eventually, the carriage stopped, and we arrived at the mountain where the Half-Moon Bear was.

“Then let’s go, Pamela.”

“Y-yes!”

Ten minutes after climbing the mountain with Pamela.

“*Pant! Pant! M-Mr. Shih-han! *Pant! W-wait a moment… please!”

Pamela was gasping for breath.

I never thought she would have this little stamina.

In the game, all the characters could run and climb walls as much as they wanted until their stamina was depleted.

It seemed that was not the case in this world.

“Are you alright?”

“I-I-I’m sorry… sorry… Cough! Cough!”

“Catch your breath before you apologize.”

“Yes… Ssssh! Haa! Ssssh! Haa!”

After standing still for about 3 minutes, Pamela raised her head.

“I’m sorry. I-I’m just a burden…”

“No, in fact, I was only thinking of myself and didn’t consider your stamina. I’m sorry.”

“M-M-M-Mr. Shih-han doesn’t have to apologize! Th-this is all because of me, who is slow as a slug and has no stamina….”

“It’s fine, Pamela. We just need to build up your stamina from now on.”

“…Huh?”

“If you’re going to attend the academy, your current stamina will definitely be inconvenient in many ways. So if you need stamina training, I’ll help you.”

I gave her a reliable thumbs-up.

“U-um. Th-that’s okay! I-I can’t take up your time for someone like me…!”

Pamela, who rarely refused, was now fluently refusing because she didn’t want to exercise.

But such a refusal wouldn’t work on me.

With determination.

With the will to pierce through Pamela’s desire to refuse, I said.

“I’m fine, Pamela. I can just build mine up with you. Let’s do our best together.”

And.